Detert's Juvenile Expungement Bill Gets Started In Senate

Juvenile offenders who have non-violent and less serious crimes on their records could have those documents automatically expunged when they turn 21.

The bill is backed by Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, who says the issue is personal. When Detert’s son was five years old, he drove his bike through drywall and was arrested.

“He was booked, fingerprinted, I made them give the picture back and I put it in his baby book, she said.

And so he had an arrest record, and when he grew up and went for his first job, they said ‘you didn’t tell us you have been arrested’ and he said, ‘I’ve never been arrested’. And he looked and when he saw it he said, ‘it doesn’t say on there I was five’.”

The bill is part of several aimed at streamlining the state’s juvenile justice system. It received unanimous support in the Senate Fiscal Policy committee.